By David Armstrong/ProPublica

In 2004, Purdue Pharma was facing a threat to sales of its blockbuster opioid painkiller OxyContin, which were approaching $2 billion a year. With abuse of the drug on the rise, prosecutors were bringing criminal charges against some doctors for prescribing massive amounts of OxyContin.
That October, an essay ran across the top of the New York Times’ health section under the headline “Doctors Behind Bars: Treating Pain is Now Risky Business.”

Its author, Sally Satel, a psychiatrist, argued that law enforcement was overzealous, and that some patients needed large doses of opioids to relieve pain. She described an unnamed colleague who had run a pain service at a university medical center and had a patient who could only get out of bed by taking “staggering” levels of oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin. She also cited a study published in a medical journal showing that OxyContin is rarely the only drug found in autopsies of oxycodone-related deaths.
“When you scratch the surface of someone who is addicted to painkillers, you usually find a seasoned drug abuser with a previous habit involving pills, alcohol, heroin or cocaine,” Satel wrote. “Contrary to media portrayals, the typical OxyContin addict does not start out as a pain patient who fell unwittingly into a drug habit.”
The Times identified Satel as “a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an unpaid advisory board member for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.”
But readers weren’t told about her involvement, and the American Enterprise Institute’s, with Purdue.

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Posted on November 25, 2019

By The ACLU of Illinois

City of Chicago officials committed to a series of specific steps designed to address the practice of pedestrian stops and pat-downs (colloquially known as stop-and-frisk) after the latest critical report on the process from former U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys.
The report shows, as an example, that 70% of all pedestrian stops are conducted on African Americans in Chicago, despite the reality that African Americans comprise only 33% of the city’s population. This high percentage of focus on African Americans has remained consistent over the past several years, making clear that the practice of pedestrian stops disproportionately impacts communities of color in Chicago.

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Posted on November 20, 2019

By Katie Zavadski and Jake Pearson/ProPublica with Ilya Marritz/WNYC

In recent weeks, we’ve heard a lot about efforts by President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to push officials in Ukraine to investigate Trump’s opponents. As the news has unfolded, it has introduced us to a litany of unfamiliar characters in both Ukraine and the U.S., many of whom were working with Giuliani or, in some fashion, on behalf of the president.
Our “Trump, Inc.” colleague Ilya Marritz was in Kyiv following the trail of Giuliani in an effort to understand more about these obscure figures who have suddenly become so important.
Yes, Ilya went there.

One thing that became clear during his travels: Giuliani’s “anti-corruption” efforts involved working with men who have their own questionable histories.

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Posted on November 19, 2019

By Loyola University Chicago

Groundbreaking, bipartisan federal legislation developed from research by Loyola University Chicago alumnus Paul Kantwill (BA ’83, JD ’86), a distinguished professor in residence at Loyola’s School of Law, was introduced this week in Washington, D.C. by members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
The landmark bill, called the Veterans and Consumer Fair Credit Act, would establish the country’s first national usury law that imposes interest rate limitations on nearly all financial products and services in an effort to protect consumers from predatory lenders.

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Posted on November 13, 2019

Mayor Christopher J. Clark/City of Harvey

Mayor Christopher J. Clark strongly encourages residents of the City of Harvey to be a voice for a better community. He urges residents to demand their elected officials demonstrate care and concern for the community by passing laws that improve infrastructure and safety, rather than a law that works against public safety and family values.
During the June 24, 2019 City of Harvey council meeting, five of six aldermen voted in favor of a new law, defined in ordinances 3376 and 3377. This law puts in place a measure to close all liquor-selling establishments, including strip clubs, at midnight.
Sixth Ward Alderman Tyrone Rogers, solely, voted against the new law. The new law represents the effort of the mayor and city council to enhance public safety, maximize scarce police resources, and ultimately begin to change the negative image of the City of Harvey. Ordinances 3376 and 3377 [were to] take effect on November 1, 2019.

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Posted on November 8, 2019

By The Office Of Inspector General

The City of Chicago Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released an advisory which finds inefficient use of City resources at the Department of Streets and Sanitation’s (DSS) Bureau of Forestry, and the opportunity to immediately improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the City’s urban forestry program.
OIG’s advisory found that DSS currently trims trees using a reactive, 311 request-based approach. As such, the City relies on residents’ calls to identify trees in need of trimming, rather than using a systematically proactive, arboriculturally based approach.
DSS crews must handle individual 311 requests, therefore spending more of their time on travel throughout the city while fewer City trees are being trimmed.
In addition, the 311 request-based approach has resulted in significant backlogs; many City trees have not been trimmed in over a decade due to a lack of residents regularly calling 311 to request the service, and certain wards receive significantly more tree trimming services than others.

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Posted on November 6, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

“Contract negotiations between the city and striking teachers are set to resume Sunday after a long night of negotiations Saturday,” the Tribune reports.
“The talks lasted about 14 hours, breaking just before midnight. Negotiations are expected to resume at 10 a.m. Sunday, a Chicago Teachers Union spokeswoman said.
“Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said Saturday the city’s latest offer provides $38 million less toward contract expenses than the union is seeking in its most recent proposal.”
A federal mediator said in a document leaked to the Sun-Times on Friday that the split was $71 million.
Included: “[A]n extra $32 million on top of the district’s current offer to reduce class size, $10 million more to increase staffing, $19 million more toward salary hikes for veteran teachers at the top of the pay scale and low-paid paraprofessionals and another $10 million to increase stipends for athletics coaches.”

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Posted on October 27, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

“Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said he had thought until Monday that there had been progress toward a settlement, so that a teachers’ strike that started Thursday would end on short order,” CBS2 Chicago reports.
“But after Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a letter urging the Chicago Teachers Union to end its strike without a settlement, saying Chicago Public Schools students ‘cannot afford to be out of school for any longer,’ Sharkey said a quick settlement is no longer likely.
“‘The mayor today has dashed our hopes for a quick settlement,’ Sharkey said.”
The media has accepted that formulation unquestioningly, but someone has to explain to me how a letter suggesting that negotiations continue while teachers return to their classrooms dashes hopes for a quick settlement.
“Early Monday morning, Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said CTU and Chicago Public Schools could reach an agreement in ‘a day or two,’ but by the end of the day, the union’s hopes were ‘dashed’ for a quick resolution as the day came to an end,” the Sun-Times reports.
Someone has to explain to me how that letter materially set back the substance of negotiations. A simple rejection of the ask and continuation of talks would have done.

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Posted on October 22, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

A collection of notes, observations, outrages and insights in no particular order.
I’ve heard union leaders repeatedly claim that the team negotiating on behalf of CPS and Mayor Lori Lightfoot is the same team that Rahm Emanuel put forth, in a CTU effort going back to the last mayoral campaign to brand Lightfoot as a Rahm-like creature. I’ve wondered what this meant, and if it was true because the same folks remain in leadership at CPS.
It turns out, though, that it’s not true.

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Posted on October 19, 2019

By Andre Perry/The Hechinger Report

A federal court ruled two weeks ago in Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard that Harvard University can continue considering race in its admissions processes. Among the many different attributes the Ivy League university looks for in a potential student, such as academic potential, extracurricular activities, community service, maturity, ethical decision-making and new points of view, is the applicant’s race.
This should not be a big deal, bearing in mind that Harvard historically considered race when it came to admitting students, or at least, considered one race – white (and one gender – male). Until 1977, when the school first allowed “sex-blind admissions,” the ratio of men to women at Harvard was 4 to1. Predictably, the Graduate School of Education was the first to admit women, in 1920. Would-be women lawyers had to wait until 1950 to gain a chance at admission to the prestigious Harvard Law School. Black male matriculates are sprinkled throughout Harvard’s history, but the overwhelming majority of its graduates have been white men.
It turns out that other people of varying backgrounds have much to offer a democracy. President John F. Kennedy believed that when he introduced the concept of affirmative action in 1961 in the context of government contracts.

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Posted on October 15, 2019